WRITING ON WRITING MATERIALS

May 22, 2021

Hi everyone!

This is my first blog. It will be a series of blogs on the history of writing materials.

Please do give your precious feedback.

https://kathakantar.blogspot.com/2021/05/writing-on-writing-materials.html

Thanks,

Antar Biswas

May 24, 2021

A very ambitious, but also fascinating topic. This is an opportunity to do some solid research. Keep track of your sources, where you get your information. And don't be afraid of going back and revising as you learn more. All of us doing historical research learn more as we go along, and earlier statements may need to be changed as better information comes along. Not all sources on the internet are equally good. 😁

When you get to the 19th-century, be sure and check out my site thesteelpen.com. There's a very tiny amount related to the UK, the first place steel pens were made on an industrial scale, with much more on the US steel pen industry.

If you have questions about steel pens, and the transition from quill to steel, feel free to reach out and ask.

Good luck!

Andrew

May 24, 2021

13 hours ago, AAAndrew said:

A very ambitious, but also fascinating topic. This is an opportunity to do some solid research. Keep track of your sources, where you get your information. And don't be afraid of going back and revising as you learn more. All of us doing historical research learn more as we go along, and earlier statements may need to be changed as better information comes along. Not all sources on the internet are equally good. 😁

When you get to the 19th-century, be sure and check out my site thesteelpen.com. There's a very tiny amount related to the UK, the first place steel pens were made on an industrial scale, with much more on the US steel pen industry.

If you have questions about steel pens, and the transition from quill to steel, feel free to reach out and ask.

Good luck!

Andrew

Thank you very much for your compliments and guidance, Mr. Andrew.

You have a lovely website. It is a really helpful source of reference for my project.

Thanks again,

Antar Biswas

May 26, 2021

> I have also read somewhere about lead-based inks as well

I recall reading this too, but that's a vague citation... a Google search top result is a Smithsonian Magazine article about this, if you want to add a more trusted reference to lend your write-up more verisimilitude.

I, like many here, am a fan of writing materials & their history. So I'm interested where you're going with the series -- are you going to cover how writing systems evolved in many places like China & Rapanui (maybe), or are you tracing the origins of the commonly used tools of today (pen, brush, reed, etc), or something else as a unifying theme?

Do please post in this thread when you publish your next article

May 26, 2021

19 minutes ago, ASCIIaardvark said:

I recall reading this too, but that's a vague citation... a Google search top result is a Smithsonian Magazine article about this, if you want to add a more trusted reference to lend your write-up more verisimilitude.

Thank you for sending the reference. I will add this to the bibliography at the end of the series. And,I was also planning to write an article on various ink recipes in the future. So it will surely help.

21 minutes ago, ASCIIaardvark said:

are you going to cover how writing systems evolved in many places like China & Rapanui (maybe), or are you tracing the origins of the commonly used tools of today (pen, brush, reed, etc), or something else as a unifying theme?

Yes, in fact, I am dedicating the second part on writing materials evolved in the orient (china and indian subcontinent) and in mesoamerica (though I was thinking of the mayans).